BOOKS

A half-century ago, women comprised only a tiny fraction of practicing attorneys. Today, nearly half of law school graduates are female. Phyllis Kitzerow explores the experiences of women in the legal profession over the past fifty years, charting the sometimes surprising impact of shifting social norms on pathways to professional and personal success.
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Roddrick Colvin assesses the impact of lesbian and gay police officers on law enforcement in the US and the UK, as well as the policies that enable a diverse work environment.
Colvin tracks the evolution of police agencies toward being more "gay friendly" both as employers and as service providers. He also provides insights into the day-to-day barriers and opportunities that lesbian More >

Jeff Torlina challenges the conventional wisdom about the attitudes of blue-collar men toward their work.
Torlina highlights the voices of pipe fitters, welders, carpenters, painters, locomotive assemblers, and factory workers to reveal the complexities—and advantages—of working-class life. This book is a penetrating critique of many commonly held assumptions, and a compelling case More >

Do Tupperware parties and Mary Kay sales empower individual women, or do they exploit personal relationships for corporate gain? Looking through the overlapping lenses of gender, work, and culture, Susan Williams and Michelle Bemiller critically explore the world of party plan sales.
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Women and minorities have entered higher-paying occupations, but their overall earnings still lag behind those of white men. Why? Looking nationwide at workers across all employment levels and occupations, Robert Kaufman examines the unexpected ways that prejudice and workplace discrimination continue to plague the labor market.
Kaufman probes the mechanisms by which race and sex groups are More >

Why do some people get ahead in the workplace, while others, equally qualified, fall behind? Rochelle Parks-Yancy uses the experience of African American workers across the US to reveal how the forces of inequality and social capital shape long-term occupational success.
Parks-Yancy's mixed-methods approach probes the ways that people find jobs, lose jobs, and get promoted, illuminating the More >

What happens to long-term employees when their jobs are unexpectedly eliminated? In this richly detailed study of a major layoff and its aftermath, Kenneth Root and Rosemarie Park address head-on the ramifications of job loss for older workers.
The authors follow the experiences of 173 factory workers—from first thoughts on being forced out of work to reflections several years later. More >

Women scientists working in small, for-profit companies are eight times more likely than their university counterparts to head a research lab. Why?
Laurel Smith-Doerr reveals that, contrary to widely held assumptions, strong career opportunities for women and minorities do not depend on the formal policies and long job ladders that large, hierarchical bureaucracies provide. In fact, highly More >

Whistleblowers can ruin lives—and can save them. Is it worth it? Roberta Ann Johnson explores when and how—and to what effect—people make the choice to blow the whistle. Engrossing case studies from the tobacco industry, to NASA, to the FDA illustrate clearly how individual efforts can and do transform institutions, shape public policy, and serve as a force for More >